Three days ago, with a heavy heart, Juan Roque left for Jacumba, Calif. He was returning to collect belongings from his totaled car following a scary accident.

On Dec. 16, the former ASU and NFL lineman had attended the funeral of his uncle, Juan Zermeno, in Chula Vista, Calif. It had been a rough day. Zermeno had meant a lot to Roque, who was inspired by his uncle’s story of perseverance and messages of taking education seriously.

That night, as Roque returned home to Arizona, he was clipped by another car on the mountainous roads where Interstate 8 in California dips near Mexico’s border. The other driver kept going, but Roque’s car spun and ran into a large rock that stopped it from flipping over. Nearby was a steep cliff. Another driver aided Roque, who was fortunate to suffer only a minor wrist injury. His car, however, was damaged beyond repair.

On Thursday, Roque drove back to pick up his belongings from the place where his car was towed. As he passed the accident site on the way home, he was moved to revisit the scene and was stunned with what he found.

Neatly folded on a rock were pants and a jacket he had worn to the wake and funeral. Before the accident, they had been in the backseat. Hanging on a dry bush next to the rock was a memento, a cross his cousin had given him for being a pall bearer at the funeral.

“I just cannot believe I found the cross there,” Roque said Saturday. “I thought it was lost.”

Take what you will from the experience. For Roque, “it was a message that my uncle is in heaven and had a hand in surviving this horrific accident.” …

Dan Majerle is quickly learning about the challenges that come with being a head coach. On Friday, Majerle dismissed from Grand Canyon’s men’s basketball team leading scorer Demetrius Walker and guard Jeff Lowery and suspended indefinitely swingman Justin Foreman.

I happened to speak on Thursday with Jerry Colangelo, who helped usher GCU into the Division I era and whose named is attached to the university’s sports business school. He alluded to challenges Majerle was facing and was confident the former Suns player was equipped to make tough decisions. Sounds like that’s exactly what Majerle did. …

“He’s doing a terrific job,” Colangelo said. “With all due respect to the current players, bear in mind that all the players he inherited are Division II players and he’s playing a Division I schedule.” …

Majerle is just as intense as a coach as he was as a player, Colangelo said. “He takes losses extremely hard.” …

The Cardinals’ path to the playoffs is straight forward: They must beat San Francisco today and hope New Orleans loses to Tampa Bay. It will be a tough task for the Buccaneers, who are 12-point underdogs.

Several anxious Cardinals fans have reached out, seeking any nuggets of hope that Tampa Bay can win. In the interest of keeping spirits up this holiday season, here are a few tidbits, for recreational purposes only:

The Buccaneers’ defense has improved from a ranking of 29th to one of 13th. … The Saints have lost three of their past four games and have averaged only 12 points in losses to Seattle, St. Louis and Carolina. … New Orleans doesn’t have much of a running game. … Tampa Bay is 4-3 after and 0-8 start. … The Buccaneers lead the NFC with 31 takeaways. …

The Cardinals will wear red on red today. (I know this stuff is important to you people.) …

It amazes me when people in high places don’t appreciate the power of social media. Think back to a week ago, when Washington state Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon tweeted after the Cardinals’ victory over Seattle that “losing a football game sucks. Losing to a desert racist wasteland sucks a lot.”

Class act. He later apologized but also said his followers were taking his trash talk too seriously. What happened to being held to a higher standard? …

Arizona State always seems to find unique ways to honor Pat Tillman. The defense has, in an unexpected way, with 42 interceptions over the past two seasons, tied for most in the country with Houston. Tillman’s number with ASU was 42. …

Matchup that intrigues me in the Holiday Bowl: Texas Tech’s offense averages 392 passing yards per game, the second most in the nation, while ASU’s defense ranks in the top eight in interceptions, turnovers forced and sacks. …

Final thought: “I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures.” — Earl Warren, late chief justice of the United States.

Reach Boivin at paola.boivin@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/PaolaBoivin. Listen to her on “Big Guy on Sports” streaming live on sports360az.com with Brad Cesmat every Monday at 10:30 a.m.

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